Founding Fathers by cliff1066 Â"ž
With the recent events of the National Security Agency's
leaks, our government is doing all in its power to obtain custody of Edward
Snowden. It is without a doubt that I argue this is no longer only a
controversy over this one individual. Not to be overlooked is the effort our
government is putting forth to set a precedent-- a precedent that dissuades
Americans from this type of behavior in the future. However, what would the founders
of the United States say to these types of actions? This is not as straightforward of a question as you might believe.
After one dives into a deep study of
early American politics, what is seen is that there was never a unified
consensus on the true role of government. For example, the question of how much
power should be held between the people vs. the federal administration (ex: Republican
vs. the Federalist Party) has been a plaguing question since the creation of
our country. Why do we have the Constitution?
It is not because it was the first outline for how to structure our new government.
Rather, because our first (The Articles of Confederation,) was not nearly strong
enough, in terms of the relation between state and the federal authority.
Hence, now we have "the law of the land", federal superseding individual state
laws. Allow me to remind you, given all this controversy and we have not yet left
the 1700's at this point.
We should not be misled, the
founding fathers, although a group of people I highly admire, had their share
of shortcomings. A large majority had either come from higher socio-economic
classes or at least had reached that place in society by the time of our
independence. Thus, the majority did not feel the average person was capable to or
should even have an excessively strong voice in the new country's political
decisions. Hence, we are presently represented, rather than active agents in
our government today.
However, we have to remember that we are all products of our
time. I believe most historians, myself included, would argue that our
forefathers were very pragmatic and forward looking thinkers. Despite their
class biases, they offered many freedoms that the status quo in almost all
other countries withheld from their citizens in the 18th century and
prior. As I noted in my one of my previous articles, "Political Leadership" I
Knew I Forgot Something. (Let Us Give our American History Meaning)", Jefferson
states, " When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
When governments fear the people, there is liberty. " Of course we can not speak for our
founding fathers, we can only make an educated guess as to their true
ideologies, based off their actions and other primary evidence available to us.
However, if I had the opportunity to ask some of these free thinkers, I believe
at least a few would look upon the NSA Leaker with somewhat cautious, but admirable
respect. Keeping in mind that our country was founded on the basis that too
much government is undesirable in a free society.